Chain Reaction

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CHAIN REACTION - PAGE 5

Six people were sent to area hospitals after three accidents occurred about the same time on the Edens Expressway, just south of the U.S. Highway 41 merge. Shortly before 10 p.m. Friday, a car in the northbound lane slid across the icy pavement, rolled over and stopped in a ditch, said Illinois State Trooper Sgt. Richard Wojcak. The driver of the car was not injured, but a female passenger in the car was taken to Victory Memorial Hospital in Waukegan, where she was treated and released, a nursing supervisor said.

(Updates number of casualties) Nov 22 (Reuters) - A high-speed pileup of up to 150 vehicles on a fog-bound Texas interstate killed at least two people on Thursday and injured up to 120, a sheriff's spokesman said. The chain reaction of collisions shut down Interstate 10 about 15 miles (25 km) west of Beaumont for several hours, said Deputy Rod Carroll of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. "We have 18-wheelers on top of cars, we have cars on top of cars. It's just catastrophic," he said, adding that rescuers were still looking for victims.

A sudden snowstorm Friday led to a 15-vehicle chain-reaction crash on the Northwest Tollway that killed a young girl from Rolling Meadows and left three other family members badly injured. Illinois State Police said the accident occurred shortly before 11 a.m., after blowing snow from a fast-moving squall glazed a section of the road near the U.S. Highway 20 bypass. The tollway was closed in both directions until about 2 p.m. while rescuers cleared the scene. Ten passenger vehicles and five tractor-trailer rigs were involved.

At least four persons were reported killed and several others injured Thursday night in a fiery multi-vehicle accident on the Edens Expressway at Clavey Road in Highland Park. The intersection has been the scene of many accidents. Six cars and a semi-trailer truck were involved in the accident, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. Highland Park Police Sgt. Roger Mellem said, "There's a semi (trailer truck) that turned over and four cars involved (with)

A pregnant woman was injured and two men were slightly hurt Saturday afternoon when a CTA bus rear-ended the woman's car on the Northwest Side, causing a chain-reaction crash involving nine cars, officials said. Beata Wieckowska, 27, of the Northwest Side, who was nearly nine months pregnant, was in serious condition after surgery Saturday evening at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, said Betty Tupy, a nursing supervisor. Wieckowska's baby, a girl, was delivered safely, Tupy said.

A Sycamore man has been accused of having heroin in his system when he caused a chain-reaction automobile crash this year in Kane County that killed an 11-year-old boy. State's Attorney Joe McMahon said aggravated DUI charges have been filed against Benjamin Black, 28, of the 1500 block of Sparkhayes Drive, in connection with the crash in which Matthew Ranken of Sycamore died. According to police, Black was driving an SUV west on Illinois Highway 64 in western Kane County about 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 when he failed to stop for a line of cars halted because of another crash.

Two people were seriously injured in a 4-vehicle crash this morning on the city's Far South Side, officials said. Chicago Fire Department paramedics responded about 7:30 a.m. to a call of a traffic crash on the 10500 block of South Ewing, according to fire media information. Two people were taken in serious-to-critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Their ages and genders were not immediately available, officials said. Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said it was 4-car accident.

Things can snowball even in the heat of Tampa Bay, and the sticky-handed Bears kept coming until they'd bowled Buccaneers quarterback Trent Dilfer right out of the game Sunday. Dwayne Joseph snatched the Bears' fourth and final interception of the day in the fourth quarter off a frustrated and emotionally drained Dilfer, who then retreated to the sidelines. But it was veteran Donnell Woolford who actually started the chain reaction in the second quarter with his second interception of the season and 24th as a Bear.

Using a laser six-shooter to start an atom-smashing chain reaction Monday, U.S. Rep. Harris Fawell (R., Naperville) helped make Argonne National Laboratory in Du Page County one of the top guns in the world of physics. The world's first superconducting heavy-ion accelerator, ATLAS (Argonne Tandem-Linear Accelerator System), was dedicated Monday at the laboratory. About 200 scientists and government officials were on hand to watch Fawell get the $20 million system in gear by using the laser to activate a light sensor.